Northern Kentucky University
Andrew Jackson: “The Common Man's Hero President” or Villain, or Both?
Abstract
Service learning projects challenge history students to learn how to “translate” the past to a wide audience. Helping people in the present understand why the people of the past committed or accepted actions we would condemn today, requires students to look more deeply into records left behind. This presentation is based on a project that explored why the white residents of East Tennessee supported the forced removal of their Cherokee neighbors in what is now called the “Trail of Tears.”
Visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in eastern Tennessee learn about how the region was home to people from many cultures. One of the museum’s greatest challenges is sharing the story of Andrew Jackson, the first U.S. president from Tennessee, also considered the first “common man” president because, although a wealthy, national war “hero” when elected, he was also the first frontier-born, non-elite child of a poor Irish immigrant to become president. When Jackson fought the Creek Indians in The Red Stick War, (part of the War of 1812), Cherokee warriors were his allies. So why, not only did President Jackson support and promote the Cherokee Removal, but also their East Tennessee neighbors? A possible answer was found in President Jackson’s own words:
"Doubtless it will be painful [for Indians] to leave the graves of their
fathers; but . . . [to] better their condition in an unknown land our
forefathers left all that was dear in earthly objects. Our children by thousands
yearly leave the land of their birth to seek new homes in distant regions."
Jackson’s words cannot excuse an inhumane betrayal of the Cherokee, but they help the people of the present understand the people of the past. The project taught the student an important lesson about the challenge of telling a complicated story.
Andrew Jackson: “The Common Man's Hero President” or Villain, or Both?
Service learning projects challenge history students to learn how to “translate” the past to a wide audience. Helping people in the present understand why the people of the past committed or accepted actions we would condemn today, requires students to look more deeply into records left behind. This presentation is based on a project that explored why the white residents of East Tennessee supported the forced removal of their Cherokee neighbors in what is now called the “Trail of Tears.”
Visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in eastern Tennessee learn about how the region was home to people from many cultures. One of the museum’s greatest challenges is sharing the story of Andrew Jackson, the first U.S. president from Tennessee, also considered the first “common man” president because, although a wealthy, national war “hero” when elected, he was also the first frontier-born, non-elite child of a poor Irish immigrant to become president. When Jackson fought the Creek Indians in The Red Stick War, (part of the War of 1812), Cherokee warriors were his allies. So why, not only did President Jackson support and promote the Cherokee Removal, but also their East Tennessee neighbors? A possible answer was found in President Jackson’s own words:
"Doubtless it will be painful [for Indians] to leave the graves of their
fathers; but . . . [to] better their condition in an unknown land our
forefathers left all that was dear in earthly objects. Our children by thousands
yearly leave the land of their birth to seek new homes in distant regions."
Jackson’s words cannot excuse an inhumane betrayal of the Cherokee, but they help the people of the present understand the people of the past. The project taught the student an important lesson about the challenge of telling a complicated story.